ANGLING. 



some of tlieir banks presents some of the most bewitching 

 views to the eye of one who has any artistic idea of landscape 

 sketches. 



In the northern countries of Europe, angling, chiefly by English 

 sportsmen, has been successfully practised to ^a great extent. In 

 Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and even in Russia, the British mode 

 of angling is now well known, and even followed with enthusiasm, 

 by many of the nobles of those respective countries. 



But the most cheering view for the angling enthusiast in England, 

 who revels in the delightful anticipation of seeing his favourite 

 sport becoming universal, is the rapid progress which the amuse- 

 ment has made in the United States of America. Here we see the 

 accounts daily, from the provincial prints in every section of the 

 Union, that angling clubs, p and gatherings, and parties, are now 

 becoming quite fashionable in every direction where there are fish- 

 able streams and rivulets. Almost the entire district, from the 

 New England States to the foot of the Rocky Mountains west, and 

 even to the very shores of the Pacific Ocean in the Columbian dis- 

 trict, has been visited, within the space of a few years, by professed 

 anglers. And it is no uncommon thing to undertake a fishing tour 

 of a month or two, and devoting the chief portion of the time to 

 the search of new and unfrequented localities for the prosecution 

 of future piscatory pastimes. We read in a recent number of a 

 Cincinnati newspaper, that Mr. Such-and-such-a-one had just arrived 

 at his own place of abode, all well, after a two months' fishing ex- 

 cursion ; and that there would be a meeting of the friends of the 

 art, who lived in the town, to congratulate him on his return. The 

 angling literature of the States is increasing daily, and assuming 

 that scientific form and polished taste which show that the mass of 

 the people look upon the art as a truly improvable and intellectual 

 one. We find, in the American fishing-books, a number of spirited 

 angling songs, worthy of taking their place among the very best 

 specimens of lyrical composition either in the English or any other 

 language; and, with respect to prose compositions on angling 

 topics, few English writers have come up to the ^ spirit and life 

 which the Americans embody. Witness the following ^description 

 of an angling tour, written by the late Hon. Daniel Webster, one 

 of the most able legislators and men of genius of whom the United 

 States can boast : 



" We were lost standing," says he, " at the upper part of Sage's 

 ravine, with some forty trout in our basket, when the time was up, 

 the mail must go, the article must be cut short, and all ^ the best 

 parts of it, that for which all the rest was but a preparation, must 

 be left unwritten. The same visitor never comes twice to the eye 

 of the pen. If you scare it away, you might as well fish for a 

 trout after he has seen you, and darted under a stone, or beneath 

 his overhanging bank or root. But trouting in a mountain brook 

 is an experience of life so distinct from every other, that every 

 man should enjoy at least one in his day. That being denied to 



